Charita Goshay: Out with the crazy, in with the crazy

Every year at year's end, I write about my joy at seeing the old year leave, with the hope that the incoming, unblemished year will be better.

Charita Goshay CantonRep.com staff writer @cgoshayREP

Every year at year's end, I write about my joy at seeing the old year leave, with the hope that the incoming, unblemished year will be better.

Every year, the new year descends, twirly and twinkly like a glittery gift that we can't wait to tear into.

By December, it's a wrecking ball.

I'm cured.

Who could have foreseen the abject craziness we've endured in 2013?

Probably anyone who lived through 2012.

Last week, I ran across a past headline written by my editor, Gayle Beck, that read "2011: The year that roared."

Ha. What little can be remembered of 2011 has already been swathed in where's-Oprah-now nostalgia.

In 2011, Occupy Wall Street was in full throttle, as was a revolution in Tunisia — a spark that lit a flame of protest throughout the Middle East. However, the happy Hollywood endings we've been weaned on have not manifested for either movements. Not even close.

In fact, two years later, the income gap has widened and the bright Arab Spring is withering in the ever-darkening shadow of oppression.

WORST EVER

In 2011, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was nearly killed by a mentally ill gunman who did murder six other people and wounded 13 others. Back then, we thought we had reached the nadir of such incidents, never dreaming that in 2013, there would be 30 more.

Every year, the seen-it-all impossibilities grow exponentially. As more people get access to social media, there's now a world stage for wackiness, and in real time.

How crazy did it get in 2013? Some people accused the pope of being a Marxist. The pope.

The 113th Congress not only bickered, it took the "Worst Ever" heavyweight title belt from the 112 Congress, which until this year was considered by many experts as, well, the worst ever.

Not only are the culture wars back, it's now clear there was never a truce.

It hardly seems possible that Abraham Lincoln could have built a Continental Railroad in the midst of a Civil War when you consider all the trouble President Barack Obama has had with a website.

GOOD OLD DAYS

What's scary is, 10 years from now, these could be the good old days.

In 10 years, Miley Cyrus', ahem, dancing could look like a minuet in the ballroom of the Good Ship

We celebrate New Year's because we're beings of faith — not just the religious kind but also a belief that humankind finally will figure it out.

We celebrate because, from diets to romance, we've been taught that a new year is a reboot, even when it isn't. There's nothing more universally human than falling from the wagon of our own best intentions.

We celebrate because, like Charlie Brown and the football — and Election Day — we still believe that maybe this time around, this new year, it'll be different.